Don't miss chance to visit Frank Lloyd Wright's Auldbrass

Mark your calendar now for the biennial opening of Frank Lloyd Wright's Auldbrass, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Nov. 7 and Nov. 8. This rare opportunity is sponsored by The Beaufort County Open Land Trust.

If you haven't visited the only plantation Wright designed, you don't know want to miss this. Ticket information is available by calling 843-521-2175.

Two lectures will take place at Auldbrass on Saturday. Tom Crews, current architect at Auldbrass, will discuss his work and influence at the plantation. A slide presentation of before and after pictures will accompany his discussion.

David G. DeLong, author of "Auldbrass, Frank Llyod Wright's Southern Plantation," will discuss the architectural history of the site and show his photographs. The event will include wine and cheese.

The Beaufort County Open Land Trust's Web site describes Auldbrass this way:

"Although Frank Lloyd Wright designed over 1,000 projects during his long and prolific career, Auldbrass, in Yemassee, S.C., is the only plantation among them. It is also one of the largest and most complex projects he ever undertook. Wright had an unusually intense commitment to Auldbrass, and worked on it, off and on, for over twenty years, from 1938 until his death in 1959. Because Auldbrass was private and fell into disrepair in the 1960s after the original owners' death, it was rarely photographed or published, and as a consequence, little has been known about this major work. In 1986, film producer Joel Silver bought Auldbrass, and with the help of Eric Lloyd Wright, the grandson of Frank Lloyd Wright, he meticulously restored this stunning architectural gem."

Check it out for yourself.

While attending the South Atlantic Regional Convention of the American Institute of Architects in Greenville last month, I had the pleasure of visiting the only other project designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in South Carolina.

We were entertained by the original contractor and viewed the complete set of working drawings for the house and furniture, all six pages of them.

The 1,727-square foot, three-bedroom, two-and-a-half bathroom home called Broad Margin was designed by Wright in 1951 for sisters Gabrielle and Charlcey Austin.

Wright named the house Broad Margins after the passage, "I love a broad margin to my life," by Henry David Thoreau. In 1978, the house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Broad Margin is a "Usonian House," as Wright described his small, affordable houses that were typically single story, built on a concrete slab of native materials with large overhangs. Wright was particularly sensitive to building the house to fit into the landscape.

The house's setting is quintessential Wright. The Greenville site is wooded and bordered by two creeks; you feel like you are miles from civilization. Your first view of the house is the sloped roof. The modest entrance is through the carport into a narrow hall that functions as a spine to the building.

All the rooms open out to the view and a series of decks that step down the hillside. The house is constructed of stone, poured-in-place concrete, Lowcountry cypress and glass. The great room has a magnificent sunken stone fireplace.

The kitchen is the only room without a view but it has an 18-foot ceiling culminating in a skylight. The floor is Wright's red poured-in-place concrete with radiant heating.

The current owner has restored the house and had the dining room table rebuilt to Wright's specifications, after a previous owner sold it. Most of the original furniture designed by Wright is still in place.